Backblaze Cloud Backup System Saved My Life – Why you need Backblaze Cloud Backup System

Backblaze Cloud Backup System saved my bacon, saved my arse, saved my life. Let me tell you a little story.

I have been a photographer since 2003. I have been a serious professional since 2014. You may imagine, I have tons of images and videos (terabytes of files) that are worth tens of thousands of dollars to me, in fact they are priceless. I sell prints, I license images, I have content that I use to teach photography classes, and I have the most important family images stored on my computer.

Yes I have a few manual backups from over the years, but I mostly rely on online cloud backups for emergencies.

Well, one such emergency occurred recently that frankly scared me to death, but I am getting ahead of myself.

**Backblaze Cloud Backup System Saved My Life**

Story of Why You Need A Cloud Backup Solution

Recently we went to Glacier National Park for a Travel Photography Adventure. We had and amazing experience and we captured some incredibly beautiful images.

I came home and started the several week process of culling the images down to the best of the best. Then I started editing these images transforming raw images into fine art. This is a long process of hard work, but it is work I love.

In the middle of the process I was informed by Microsoft that there was an operating system update that I needed to install. At the end of my workday, I setup my computer to perform the update. This should have been no problem right? Queue the scary music.

Overnight, the upgrade occurred as expected. I thought everything was OK, but when I got back to my work a day or so later, I noticed that I could not open the drive that held all of my images. I tried not to panic. I am a software engineer and I generally have skills with these things.

I worked on it for the next few days with several failed attempts. Finally, I decided to bring out some of the bigger weapons and force the process. Now I could read the drive, but what I discovered over the next few days was that most of the images on my drive were now corrupt. Seriously???

Remember, I have an automatic Cloud backup system running throughout this entire time.

Time to Restore Your Files

Well, I finally realized that my entire drive was a loss. It was time to order a backup drive from Backblaze. They charge $189 to send out the four terabyte drive, but you get that money back when you send the drive back.

I got the drive in 3 days and I started the restore process. To my shock and horror again the files on the back up were also corrupt. What was I not understanding???

Then I remembered that I continued to run my backup through the entire process..

Restore From a Point in Time

There had to be a way to get a backup from a point in time, I needed a backup from at least the day before the operating system update occurred. While it is true that I did not think about that when I purchased the backup system, of course Backblaze had considered that.

So I returned my 1st backup hard drive and immediately got my money back. I ordered my 2nd backup drive from approximately 20 days prior. When I received that drive all of my images were there and recoverable. All my work history was saved. Hew!!

I Upgraded to Unlimited

I was originally using Backblaze with a 30 day restore window. After this experience I upgraded my Backblaze license giving me the ability to restore my files from the first day when I started backing up with Backblaze.

It is wonderful to have peace of mind knowing such a great company is securing my work. Thank you Backblaze!

If you don’t have a cloud backup system of your own, I would highly encourage you to use Backblaze. They are a great combination of value and the perfect functionality that you need.

Be sure to contact us if you have any questions. And until next time, get out and capture the adventure!